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In this paper we construct infinitely many families of Einstein metrics on the connected sums of arbitrary number of copies of S2 × S3. We realize these 5-manifolds as total spaces of Seifert bundles over Del Pezzo orbifolds. A K¨ahler–Einstein metric on the Del Pezzo orbifold is then lifted to an Einstein metric using the Kobayashi–Boyer–Galicki method.

It is proved that if a compact manifold admits a smooth action by a compact, connected, non-abelian Lie group, then it admits a metric of positive scalar curvature. This result is used to prove that if ^<i>n</i> is an exotic<i>n</i>-sphere which does not bound a spin manifold, then the only possible compact connected transformation groups of ^<i>n</i> are tori of dimension [(<i>n</i>+1)/2].

For two nearby disjoint coassociative submanifolds C and C′ in a G2-manifold, we construct thin instantons with boundaries lying on C and C′ from regular J-holomorphic curves in C. We explain their relationship with the Seiberg-Witten invariants for C.

We extend recent existence results for compact constant mean curvature normal geodesic graphs with boundary in space forms in a unified way to a large class of ambient spaces. That extension is achieved by solving a constant mean curvature existence problem in a general setting presented in two isometrically equivalent versions.